By law we had to be separated for a year before we could file for the full divorce. Since we were fighting for the kids, it wasn’t going to be as fast as I wanted to.
In the meantime, the kids signed up for sports and scouts. They started having play dates and even Logan loved living in our new town. He especially loved when my aunt brought home a puppy. She was just a mutt, but was the cutest little black and white puppy I’d ever seen. Asha was excited, but Logan had been begging for a dog for years. We named her Priscilla, but we called her Prissy for short. She had longer fur and loved to be brushed and pampered.
Aside from being heartbroken, my life was getting back to the way it was. We had schedules and the children were always my first priority. The day shift gave me more time with them and it also helped me from worrying if Ramsey was going to walk back into my life.
Logan asked about him often, but thankfully, my aunt told him that he moved out of town. I took him fishing a couple times. Of course, he constantly compared me to the sheriff and I couldn’t deal with it, so I stopped offering it as something to do on a lazy day.
One morning, after I’d put both kids on the bus, I went into work as usual. The day shift was much different than the evening. A lot of the town frequented for lunch and my aunt had an older man who came in and worked the kitchen for three hours a day. He minded his own business and helped out a bunch.
That particular day, he was carrying in an order of food supplies in the back. I was busy making sure the register was set for the day and packing the deposit for when I got off and dropped it at the bank. To say I wasn’t paying attention would have been an understatement.
When someone tapped on my shoulder, from my side of the bar, I screamed out loud, before turning to see who it was.
Ramsey just stood there looking at me. I was sure it was him, except he looked different. His face was clean shaven and he wasn’t wearing a hat. “I didn’t mean to startle you, Vessa.”
“What are you doing here?” I didn’t say it in a rude way. I really wanted to know why he was standing in front of me.
“I was wondering if I could join the pool league. I have a partner already and we understand that you are already a few weeks in, but we still would like to play.” Was he really asking if he could come here to have a good time in front of my face.
“You’ll have to ask my aunt. I don’t run the league and if it were up to me I would tell you no! I thought you didn’t socialize.”
“Things change. People change.”
“My aunt is at home if you want to call her. She took over the night shift so that I could be with the kids in the afternoons.”
“How are things going for you?”
“I thought you didn’t care about anything anymore. Do you really want to know about my business?” If he thought that he could come in here and act like we never happened, like I hadn’t slept with him, he had another thing coming.
“It doesn’t have to be this way between us Vessa. I never lied to you.” He hadn’t lied, but he sure didn’t have to give me false hope.
“I’m fine about what happened between us. It’s water under the bridge. We had a one night stand. I’ll chalk that off of my bucket list and move on.”
“I’m sorry if I hurt you. The timing was wrong.”
I held up my hand to make him stop talking. “I’m a big girl, Ramsey. We slept together once, it isn’t like I fell in love with you. Just drop it. You want to come in here and shoot, so be it. I’m just telling you right now that I can’t be your friend.” Did I just say the “L” word? Had I really let myself fall in love with this broken man?
It killed me to say it out loud and to talk like that night hadn’t been one of the best moments I had ever experienced. The whole situation had hurt me when I was already at my lowest point.
“I’m sorry you feel that way, but I understand why you do. I’ll call your aunt to make sure it’s alright for us to join. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
When he finally walked out the door, I buried my face in my hands and started to cry. Who was I kidding? My feelings for Ramsey were still there and maybe even stronger from the time that had gone by. I missed seeing him and trying to get the truth out of him. I missed the way he kissed me and how he touched me.
Two nights later I was sitting with my partner waiting to see if he was going to show up. I couldn’t imagine who had offered to be his partner. Since we had five teams before they joined, their team made it even and nobody had to sit out. Unfortunately, the way the schedule fell, I had to shoot him first.
When he came walking in, my heart stopped. Beside him was a tall brunette. Her hair was down her back and she looked like a damn model. She was smiling at something he said.
My eyes met Ramsey’s and I knew that he knew I was jealous. He threw me a wink and I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t going to let him get to me. I’d tried so hard to be there for him when he pushed everyone else away. Now, he was going out and doing things in public with some beautiful chick at his side?
I grabbed my stick that had belonged to my father, and headed toward the two of them. My partner hadn’t showed yet, so I had to go about things all alone. “We should flip to see who breaks.”
Ramsey leaned into the table, so nobody else could hear us. “How long are you going to pretend that the night we spent together didn’t change things?”
“Says the guy who came here with another woman and disappeared for weeks, after he told me that he couldn’t be with me,” I whispered.
“If you’d let me explain then you wouldn’t be so mad about it,” he said under his breath.
“I’m trying not to think about that night anymore. Can we just play this match before everyone in this place thinks something is going on between us?” I didn’t get why he was doing this when he was with someone else. Was he trying to torture me more?
“That would be a bad thing?” When I raised my eyebrow he shook his head. “Fine, I call tails, because in those jeans all I can think about is the way you looked when you were naked on top of me.”
I was shocked that he’d said something like that to me. This couldn’t be the same man that I fought to get to know. This man was cocky and sure of himself. I flipped the coin and rolled my eyes. “It’s heads. I guess you lose.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” He walked back over to his partner and right away I felt jealous. I never met the woman and I already hated her. She was with Ramsey and as much as I was fighting my feelings for him, seeing him brought them all back.
I wanted him.
I wanted to touch him and feel his naked body against mine again.
I was so relieved when my teammate finally came walking over, because I was about to walk over and just put myself out there.
We played our match, but the female and I never spoke. Since it was only one shot partners, Ramsey wouldn’t be able to tell my skill level. Luckily my teammate shot better than usual, so he never noticed that I was the higher ranked player.
Still, I couldn’t help but notice that he just kept staring at me. I tried to act like it wasn’t bothering me, but the truth was, it was driving me crazy. After we played two of our five games, I excused myself to the bathroom. I didn’t really have to use the restroom, but I did need to catch my breath. He was making me crazy and I think he knew it. Hell, I think he was doing it on purpose.
When I heard the bathroom door opening, I just figured it was another female coming in to use the facilities. Hands wrapped around my waist and I was instantly spun around to be face to face with Ramsey. “You can’t be in here.” I never moved away from him.
“I need to talk to you.”
“People are waiting for us. You’re here with someone.” When I said that it made me upset and I pulled away from him.
“If you’d hear me out, I think it would make a world of difference.” He was so adamant about me listening to him. I just couldn’t deal with hearing that he’d moved on.
“No!”
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He grabbed me and pulled me back into his arms. Our faces were only inches apart. I could feel him breathing. His lips were so close. I could feel my eyes starting to close, like I was waiting to accept my kiss. Instead of feeling his lips against mine, He moved his mouth next to my ear. “When you’re ready to listen, you know where to find me. I’m not going anywhere.”
He left me in that bathroom panting for him. There was no way in hell that I could handle being around him once a week like this. It was going to kill me.
Chapter 15
Ramsey
It had taken me a while to begin to get my shit together. After my visit the girl’s gravesites, I had to face my family that I had shut out of my life. I knew that they were also devastated after the girls died, but I chose to run away rather than face them day in and day out.
Jules’ parents weren’t that happy to see me again. I had words with her father and made her mother cry. After we all got what we needed to say out, we were able to make amends to the best of our abilities. Since we never got along great, I knew they would never forgive me. It didn’t matter. This trip was about being able to forgive myself.
My progress continued to be slow moving until I realized that getting help was the only way I was going to be able to live a real life again. While back in my hometown, I decided to look into grief groups. I went into my first one with sweaty palms and nothing to say and when I came out, I had a group of people who knew exactly what I had been going through.
After a few more meetings, I was able to share my pain openly with others. The urge to drink seemed less necessary as each day I took another step toward moving forward. Being back in my parents home, made it feel like Jules and Katie were all around me. My mother was so happy to see me that she cried every time I was around. I didn’t think about how much my leaving had hurt them. They hadn’t just lost my girls, they’d lost me too.
After spending a whole week there, and getting as close to my girls as I possibly could, I still couldn’t get my mind off of Vessa. My late night memories were filled with the night we’d spent at my cabin. I longed to be able to touch her again, even when I knew that each day that passed was probably getting me further and further from that ever happening again.
I’d taken a week of personal time from my job after the whole article about my family came out. It wasn’t like the town was burning down with crime sprees. When I came back, people weren’t treating me any different. To follow through with moving forward, I found a counselor that I could see once a week, to help me cope with my situation.
Every step I took was to work toward being the man that I once was. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to be with Vessa again, but if I did, I wanted to have my head on my shoulders. With two kids to raise, she didn’t deserve to be strayed along by someone who was unsure of themselves. As a father, I wouldn’t want that myself.
It was tough. I’d make it through the day fine. It was when I went home alone at night where things got tough. I never slept in my bed because it reminded me of Jules and now I couldn’t sleep on the couch because it reminded of Vessa. I was running out of places to sleep.
I remembered when I was visiting with my mother, her reaction when I told her about Vessa. I thought she would be disappointed in me; maybe say it was way too soon. Instead all she said was, “Distance makes the heart grown fonder, you know?”
She was right. The longer I was away from Vessa, the more I wanted her. That one night with her had haunted me since she’d walked out of my door.
Call it sneaky, but once I was back in town and seeing a therapist, I had to attempt to get back in Vessa’s good graces. I owed my progress to her. She may not have believed it, but it was true. So, I had my deputy stop by the bar to check on her. Shelton loved that I’d finally opened up, so now that we were officially friends, he was all about doing me favors. I was surprised when he came back and said that Vessa wasn’t there at night anymore, but they had a running pool league going on. Since pool was something that I’d always loved to do, I decided to find myself a partner and win back the girl. It all seemed easy when I conjured the idea up in my head. Of course, Vessa, being Vessa, the stubborn woman that liked to give me a hard time, wasn’t going to be easy to win back. She was going to fight me and I would love every minute of it.
Shelton set me up with his cousin Renee. She was an attractive young woman that was studying law at the university a few towns over. Since she commuted, she said she didn’t mind showing up at pool every week. At first I was reluctant about having her by my side when I was trying to get back in Vessa’s good graces. It was also a personal test for me, to see if I even still had a chance. The funniest part was that while Vessa was getting all jealous, I’d be laughing inside knowing that Renee was a lesbian and had absolutely no interest in me at all. That’s why Shelton set us up.
He knew his plan was going to work.
I will never forget the look on her face when she saw me walking in that door. I winked at her and she curled her lip in disgust. So far it wasn’t going how I imagined it. I didn’t expect her to drop what she was doing and come running into my arms, but it seemed cool when I played it out in my head. Renee knew what I was up to and she knew that she was basically posing as a decoy. It wasn’t like we were going to make out in front of Vessa, I just wanted to get a rouse out of her.
It only took a few games for her to head to the bathroom to pout. She could deny it all she wanted, but that’s what she was doing. I found her in there leaning against the sink. Just as I suspected, she denied it and had her normal attitude that drove me wild. If I could have lifted her up to that sink and fucked her right there, I would have. Every single time I looked at her body, I pictured how hot she was naked.
When we both returned to our match, there were a few people giving us looks. Not that I cared. Even Sue’s looks didn’t bother me. Nothing mattered in that bar except Vessa and she didn’t even know it.
Her refusal to speak to me lasted the whole night. Renee was great just being there. While she giggled and talked about things at her school, that I had no interest in, Vessa was fuming with jealousy. If she would have given me a damn minute everything would have been cleared up. The guy she was playing with kept watching her ass every time she bent over for a shot. She was oblivious to his intentions when she probably asked him to be her partner. Why else would someone want to be on her team? The girl sucked at pool, but for what she lacked in billiards skills, she made up in beauty and compassion.
My team ended up winning three out of five games. Since we joined a few weeks behind everyone else, it didn’t even matter how we placed. Until I had the partner that I wanted, the league meant nothing to me.
Other teams still had to finish shooting, so I walked Renee out to her car. I didn’t want to drive her there in case Vessa did end up running into my arms. Since that plan fell flat, I stayed in my truck and just waited for her to come outside. It didn’t take her long, and when I saw her, I took a couple deep breaths and attempted round two of my plan to get her to listen to me. She climbed into her car and I started mine. By the time she turned her body around to back out of the spot, I was parked behind her, blocking her in. I didn’t wait for her to come to me. Instead, I jumped out of the truck and went to her. She rolled down the electronic window, but refused to look at me. “What do you want, Ramsey?”
I put my arms on the roof of her car and leaned in the window. “I want to talk to you. If you’d just stop being so damn stubborn and listen to me, we wouldn’t be here arguing right now.”
“Look, I get it. You needed a push and I was the one to give it to you. I’m happy that things are going better for you.”
I was going to have to force her to listen, but people were outside the bar smoking and I didn’t want them watching us. “Just forget it!” I walked back to my truck, without explaining and pulled out of the parking lot in the direction of my house. Once I saw her pull out and head in the other direction, I turned around and
followed her.
We reached a patch of woods with nothing around us and I saw it as my chance. I turned on my police lights and waited for her to pull over. Of course, to make sure she couldn’t pull away, I put my truck in front of her car. She put her head on the steering wheel and kept it there even after I got to the window.
I knocked on the glass. She reached over, without looking and rolled it down. “What now?”
“License and registration, please.”
Finally she turned and looked at me. “You can’t pull me over. I’m out of your jurisdiction and I wasn’t speeding.”
“I pulled you over tonight because you have a taillight out, ma’am.”
“Screw you!”
“I’m going to need you to step out of the car.” I stayed professional.
“I’m going to need you to move your truck and leave me alone.”
“Are you refusing to cooperate?” It was so hard not to laugh.
She threw her hands up. “This is ridiculous!”
“Step out of the car!”
I couldn’t see because it was so dark, but I knew she was rolling her eyes. She climbed out anyway and slammed the door shut. I got up close to her, pushing her body back against the vehicle. Our lips were almost touching. With the back of my hand, I drug it up between her legs. “Do you think about that night?”
She moved her head to the side so I couldn’t brush my lips against hers. “I try not to.”
“Do you ever wonder what would happen if you’d stayed that night?”
“Why are you doing this to me?” It was a plea. She was frustrated, but still not giving in to me. It was risky, but it had to be done. I pulled out the cuffs from my back pocket and got them around one of her wrists, before she even noticed that I had them. “What the hell?”
“Vessa, I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but you’ve given me no other options.” I secure the other hand and threw her over my shoulder.
She was pounding her attached hands against my back. “Put me down! Get off of me! I’m going to have you fired, you cock sucker!”
Hustle Him (Bank Shot Romance #2) Page 12
